Walsh Traces Arms Money To Hakim, Secord Accounts

March 22, 1988|By United Press International

CHICAGO — The independent counsel in the Iran-Contra case has evidence that retired Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and Albert Hakim, his Iranian-born business partner, used nearly $1 million from the proceeds of the Iran arms sales for their personal gain, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh traced some of the transactions with help from Willard Zucker, a lawyer and financial adviser in Geneva who managed Swiss bank accounts and set up a series of phony companies to mask an alleged diversion of $18 million in profits from the U.S. arms sales to Iran, the newspaper reported.

Secord and Hakim were indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges of conspiring to pay illegal gratuities to Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. North and former national security adviser John Poindexter were also charged in the indictment.

The 23-count indictment charges the four with siphoning the profits from the Iran arms sales to benefit the Contra rebels and for the personal gain of North, Secord and Hakim.

The indictment charges Hakim and Secord with transferring an unspecified amount of money from the Swiss bank accounts to other accounts, ''for their personal benefit.''

Hakim set aside $200,000 for North's family in the event of North's death and Secord paid for a $13,800 security system at North's house, the indictment charges.

Sources told the Tribune, however, that Walsh has obtained evidence that Secord and Hakim used $760,000 from the Swiss accounts to buy a one-third interest in Forway Industrys, a New Jersey-based military supply company, and $50,000 to market a laser sight for night weapons firing.

Records kept by Zucker show that Secord and Hakim transferred $150,000 in the spring of 1986 to an investment partnership called Tri-American Arms, which planned to manufacture submachine guns. They also planned to sell the license to a process for converting wheat residue into a human food supplement.